York College held responsible for death of Lydia Bishop

The jury cleared nursery worker Sophee Readhead of manslaughter by gross negligence and a further health and safety charge.

York College has been found guilty of health and safety failings which led to the death of a three-year-old girl at their on-site nursery.

The College was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday 6 February 2014 after a trial lasting three weeks, of failing to ensure people not in their employment are not exposed to a risk to their health and safety.

The College is due to be sentenced on Friday 14 February 2014.

Lydia tragically died during her first full day at York College Nursery on 17 September 2013, after a rope attached to a slide became entangled around her neck.

Rubbish skips this Saturday

Although the Council has cut back on the number of amenity skips it provides, several residents associations continue to run programmes aimed at making it easier for tenants to get rid of unwanted items.

The skips are only in place for a few minutes and residents must ensure that they put any rubbish into the skips and do not leave it on the path or highway.

Saturday              08.02.14

1              Bramhan Rd       08:30     09:30     Community Centre

2              Tang Hall lane    10:30     11:30

3              Fifth Ave              12:30     13:30

4              Bramham Rd      08:30     09:30     Grange Lane

7              Alcuin Ave           08:30     09:30

Tour caravan woe for Monk Stray?

Caravan and camping site planned

Monk Stray

Monk Stray

It appears that the York Council are going to approve the use of Monk Stray as a huge camping and caravan site to service the needs of Tour de France visitors.

Although there has been no consultation with local Councillors or residents, notices posted in the area suggest that the facility will be open for around a month.

The actual TdF start event in the City lasts only 2 days.

Most had expected camping facilities to be located closer to the Knavesmire where the start takes place.

Meanwhile the Council is remaining tight lipped on how it proposes to recoup at least some of the £1.6 million that it is putting into the event. At the last Council meeting, details were promised in “January” but they have not emerged.

The York Council taxpayers subsidy is the largest agreed by any Local Authority in the region.

The official Tour web site is markedly silent on issues like car parking and sponsorship.

Latest City centre shopper numbers – Lendal Bridge trial could go on and on and on

The Council has issued the latest City centre footfall figures.

The figures show more people visited Parliament Street during December and January this winter than in the equivalent period 12 months ago.

increase-footfall-retail

However compared to 2012, numbers are down by 9%.

The decline in shopper numbers is likely to have been influenced by the Councils decision to impose substantial car parking charge increases.

It appears that the “free” car parking day on Saturday did not produce the hoped for increases in footfall.

The numbers monitored on Saturday (1st Feb 2014) was 31,974 compared to the busiest Saturdays in the two previous years when 37,137 (2nd Feb 13) and 40,951 (28th Jan 12) people respectively were recorded on Parliament Street.

The full figures can be found here.

Meanwhile the Council leaflet, issued to residents, which talked about “Reinvigorating York” has been branded as misleading.

Claims made in the leaflet that, post the Lendal Bridge closure, “bus reliability had improved” are in conflict with the Councils own published monitoring reports.

The 4 month monitoring report (another is now due covering the period to the end of January) shows that changes to bus journey times have been insignificant although the majority are taking longer to complete their journeys.

One (the number 7 Park and Ride link to the Designer centre) showed an increase in delays of over 3 minutes during December.

The leaflet hints that the Councils Leadership does not intend to suspend the closure at the end of the 6 month trial on 28th February.

Rather, they are now intending to prolong the ”trial” until they analyse the monitoring data which has been produced.  The Council have declined to say how long this backroom analysis will take.

Meanwhile the latest survey results continue to show 79% opposed to the Lendal Bridge closure, 7% support it while 14% remain undecided.

92% say that traffic congestion in the City is getting worse.

The number of PCNs issued on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate had reached 53,420 by the end of last year according to official figures published on the Councils web site.